Lessons In Truth - Lesson 12 - Annotation 2
What reason have we for never being discouraged?
2. Our reason for never being discouraged is that back of all creation is God as Principle, as Divine Mind, willing only good for us. "Every one that is called by my name ... I have created him for my glory. I have formed him; yea, I have made him" (Isa. 43:7 A.V.). The text puts it this way:
"Did we not know it as a living reality that ... the master Mind, which sees the end from the beginning, the master Artist who Himself is (through human vessels as His hands) putting on the picture here a touch of one color and there a touch of another ... we might sometimes be discouraged" (Emilie Cady Lessons In Truth 12:1).
God, as the Author of all life, created us with a divine plan, a divine purpose, which is to manifest God's nature, our divine nature. "Jesus ... claimed that He was sent of God to carry out the divine will in the world. This commission is given to every man" (Christian Healing 33). God gave us also the capabilities required to execute the plan, the purpose. When our thinking becomes so warped that we lose sight of this purpose, we become overwhelmed with self-pity about things and conditions in the outer world. Discouragement sets in when we have forgotten that "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world" (I John 4:4). We then make no effort to free ourselves from outer bondage that originated from negative beliefs in our own mind. No matter how we may try to get away from our divine destiny, we find that we are merely making detours, for God, as the master Mind of the universe, will not permit His plans to be thwarted. Our longing to be released from that which is less than good is really our longing for God, for fulfillment of our part of God's plan.
"There is a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will" (William Shakespeare in "Hamlet").
Divine Mind is the Supreme Intelligence acting to keep all life under infallible, unchanging law. The will or plan of God for man is that all the divine ideas that make up Absolute Good are to be expressed in and made manifest through man "through human vessels as His hands" (Emilie Cady Lessons In Truth 12:1).
Like the child learning to walk, encouraged by his parent, we too are learning to walk the spiritual path. Always our divine Parent, our Father-Mother God, encourages us in our first faltering steps. No matter what mistakes we make, God's loving Presence at the center of our being is offering help. Only as we turn consciously and confidently to God as Mind are we open to receive the guidance, in the form of ideas, that enables us to solve our problems and hasten our entrance into the fuller, more harmonious life of Spirit. What previously may have seemed difficult is now viewed as an opportunity to use the powers of the "divinity that shapes our ends (Shakespeare).
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Preceding Entry: What is meant by "unity of the Spirit"? Why is the idea of oneness or unity of the Spirit important?
Following Entry: Is there any limit to God? What limits the manifestation of God in our life?
